World Bank
proposes to double funding to IndiaDubai, September 24The World Bank proposes to double
its funding to India from the present annual level of $ 1.9 billion in
the next four years to hasten infrastructure, rural and social
development.

$ 500 m loan to IMF

Phone
rental may go upChandigarh, September 24Millions of land-line and mobile
phone subscribers in the region may soon have to pay higher monthly
bills as the Supreme Court has upheld the right of the state governments
to impose sales tax on telecom services.

Kwang Roh,
general manager of Samsung Mobile Division, Korea, along with C. H.
Yoon of Samsung India after Samsung set up their first
mobile plaza for mobile phones in Mumbai, the first such in
India, on Wednesday. — PTI

Border
belt fine for citrus fruits, says
US teamAttari (Amritsar),
September 24An American horticulture team,
which paid a visit here, has found the border belt suitable for growing
citrus varieties, especially malta. The American team included Mr James
H. Keithly and Mr Chester Rasnake. They were accompanied by Dr J.S.
Kahlon of Pepsi Co and a number of officials from the Punjab
Horticulture Department.

Express
highways to connect metrosNew Delhi, September 24The Union Minister for Road
Transport and Highways, Maj-Gen (retd) B. C. Khanduri, today said the
Golden-Quadrilateral project on connecting the four metropolitan cities
through express highways would be “almost over” by 2004.

A-I cuts
fares for USA, Europe routesNew Delhi, September 24Air-India has cut economy class
fares to several destinations in Europe and the United States in an
effort to increase outbound traffic during the lean season, a top
company official confirmed today.

PC sales
record 26 pc growthNew Delhi, September 24Desktop personal computers
clocked a sale of 6,41,812 units in April-June, registering a growth
of 26 per cent growth over 5,08,601 PCs sold in the corresponding
period of last year.

Microsoft
to shut Net chat rooms in IndiaBangalore, September 24Microsoft Corp on Wednesday
announced the closure of MSN chat services in India and several other
countries, saying that the move was aimed at protecting children from
“inappropriate” communication online.

NTC
bonds issue next weekNew Delhi, September 24National Textiles Corporation
(NTC) bonds issue to mop up around Rs 500 crore will hit the market
next week.

Rice
millers resent FCI moveJalalabad, September 24Rice millers of the state resent
the non-acceptance of parboiled rice in the Central pool. The FCI
Regional Office, Punjab, has directed the District Managers to ask the
millers to deliver raw rice instead of parboiled rice.

ROUND-UP

Reliance
offers ISD cardsNew Delhi, September 24Reliance Infocomm today launched
in Punjab and Gujarat an ISD card that would enable the customers from
India to call the USA and Canada for Rs 7 per minute.

Dubai, September 24
The World Bank proposes to double its funding to India from the present annual level of $ 1.9 billion in the next four years to hasten infrastructure, rural and social development.

“The level of assistance could double in the next four years or so if India sustains its social reforms and continues to work aggressively towards poverty reduction programmes”, a top Bank official told PTI today.

Besides the social sector, funding is being considered in the areas of infrastructure and rural development, he said.

The official said the institution is highly satisfied with poverty reduction programmes and other social sector reforms in India.

India’s achievement in the social and economic sectors have come into sharp focus at the ongoing annual meetings of the World Bank and IMF here.

The likely increase in aid to India comes at a time when World Bank President James Wolfenson has expressed deep concern at the big fall in aid from the developed to the developing world.

In his address to IMF-World Bank meetings yesterday, Wolfenson urged world leaders to make a new commitment to aid as well as liberalising the trade for the third world countries.

The Bank recently approved a credit of $ 54 million for the ‘Food and Drugs Capacity Building Project’, a health project in India.

One of the components of the project — food safety — deals with strengthening government’s regulatory capacity for food safety besides educating consumers and upgrading related skills in private sector in this regard.

According to officials, India borrows from the World Bank under the Variable Spread Loans (VSL) for which the repayment period is 20 years and variable interest rate is pegged at 1.71 per cent as on April 15, 2003.

Besides a front end fee of one per cent, an effective commitment charge of 0.25 per cent is charged on undisbursed loan amount.

The IBRD and the IDA commitments for India during 2003 stood at $ 1.52 billion as against $ 2.19 billion in 2002. India is among the top ten borrowers of IBRD assistance.

During the last fiscal year, the World bank strengthened its commitment to helping developing countries build infrastructure essential to make progress in key social priorities like education, health, water and sanitation, according to a bank release.

$ 500 m loan to IMF

Kolkata: The Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry is contemplating to give a loan of about $ 500 million to the International Monetary Fund(IMF) for currency balancing in other countries.

According to informed sources here today, the Foreign Exchange was growing at half a billion mark per week during the past 39 weeks and there was a surplus of $ 88 billion.

The IMF has recently in Dubai commended India’s growth and development strategy but said it should take steps to check the burgeoning fiscal deficit.
— PTI, UNI

Chandigarh, September 24
Millions of land-line and mobile phone subscribers in the region may soon have to pay higher monthly bills as the Supreme Court has upheld the right of the state governments to impose sales tax on telecom services. The Punjab Government has already imposed 12.5 per cent sales tax on monthly rentals — amounting to Rs 100 crore — from BSNL subscribers alone, but BSNL is yet to start the collection of sales tax from consumers.

Sources in the telecom sector claim that once the apex court’s order is implemented, the mobile subscribers would have to pay up to Rs 25 to Rs 100 per month extra and about Rs 40 per month in case of fixed-line phones.

The Chandigarh administration has also imposed 8.8 per cent sales tax on the monthly rental of fixed-line phones and sale of SIM cards. Mr G.S. Bhatia, Principal General Manager (CMTS), BSNL, Punjab circle, however, said they were yet to get a copy of the court’s order. The final decision regarding to imposition of sales tax on consumers would be taken by the headquarters, he said, adding that:. “BSNL and other operators may file a review petition before charging sales tax from their customers.”

A number of states, including Punjab and Haryana, had imposed 5 to 13 per cent sales tax on telecom services. But the cellular operators and BSNL had objected to it, claiming that the state governments had no right to impose sales tax on telecom services since the Centre had already imposed service tax on telecom services.

Officials in the Excise and Taxation Departments of Punjab and Haryana claimed that the decision of the Supreme Court would help the state governments to collect sales tax amounting to hundreds of crores. Escotel, the cellular operator in Haryana, is said to be paying 10 per cent sales tax on the sale of SIM cards already. The state had imposed sales tax of about 7 per cent in 1985 on the monthly rental from fixed-line subscribers.

The officials said the ruling would encourage other states as well increase sales tax to 12.5 per cent, the present rate accepted by the joint committee of state finance ministers.

Attari (Amritsar), September 24
An American horticulture team, which paid a visit here, has found the border belt suitable for growing citrus varieties, especially malta. The American team included Mr James H. Keithly and Mr Chester Rasnake. They were accompanied by Dr J.S. Kahlon of Pepsi Co and a number of officials from the Punjab Horticulture Department.

Disclosing this, Dr Baj Singh Sandhu, Horticulture Development Officer (Nursery), said yesterday that varieties of malta, to be brought from Florida, would be developed on 2.5 acres at the government garden and horticulture nursery on an experimental basis at Attari. These varieties would be developed on the basis of ‘trench plantation’, which is popular in the USA.

Instead of traditional techniques, drip irrigation would be used for growing the new varieties. The trials for the new varieties would be started in the first week of October. If successful, such an experiment could usher in a ‘citrus revolution’ in the border belt.

Dr Sandhu said the new varieties would be developed in greenhouses set up at Jallowal near Jalandhar and then planted at Attari. While the research centre (Jallowal) would be looked after by Pepsi Co and Tropicana, the Horticulture Department would take care of the experimental fields. Citrus gardens are being developed on assured and pre-determined price to farmers for up to 20 years.

New Delhi, September 24
The Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Maj-Gen (retd) B. C. Khanduri, today said the Golden-Quadrilateral project on connecting the four metropolitan cities through express highways would be “almost over” by 2004.

The project will cover a distance of 5,846 km, the minister said, adding that 45 per cent of the project, covering a distance of 2,650 km, would be completed by the end of this year.

Regarding the Kashmir-Kanyakumari and Silchar-Saurashtra East-West coridoor, the minister said a total of 3,500 km on this highway corridor was under various stages of completion. He added that 537 km of this 7,300 km national highway project was already in use.

He said the acquisition of land was the “biggest challenge” the government was facing in the execution of the project as it was a state subject.

He added that land acquisition was major problem in many states, including Maharashtra and Karnataka.

The minister said the World Bank had cleared the funds needed for the 87-km-long Allahabad bypass project and work on it would begin soon.

New Delhi, September 24
Air-India has cut economy class fares to several destinations in Europe and the United States in an effort to increase outbound traffic during the lean season, a top company official confirmed today.

Fares to London have dipped by 23.5 per cent, to Frankfurt by 36 per cent and to the United States by 13.3 per cent for the October-December season.

The Delhi-London or Mumbai-London return fare will come down to Rs 26,000 from Rs 34,000. A return flight to Frankfurt will cost Rs 25,000 against Rs 34,000 earlier and to New York Rs 43,000 (Rs 49,500).

The offer will be open till November for London and December for Frankfurt and New York, the official said.

Air-India, has also started a scheme for senior citizens on all sectors which will be lower than the excursion fares. On weekdays, return fares to London are Rs 25,000 while those to New York are Rs 41,000.
— UNI

New Delhi, September 24
Desktop personal computers clocked a sale of 6,41,812 units in April-June, registering a growth of 26 per cent growth over 5,08,601 PCs sold in the corresponding period of last year.

Data released by Manufacturers Association of Information Technology (MAIT) showed that assembled segment accounted for 65 per cent of the growth, causing concern for the organised sector.

With robust growth prospects, the IT market is expected to grow at 18 per cent in 2003-04, while PC sales are likely to cross 2.7 million units.

Notebooks/laptops registered an 8 per cent growth in sales at 14,784 units, compared to 13,677 units in Q1 last year.

Servers witnessed a 25 per cent growth at 28,046 units sold, against 22,694 in the previous corresponding quarter.

Dot Matrix printers had a negative growth of 13 per cent as sales dipped to 87,349 units, from 99,833 printers in Q1 of 2002-03.

The maximum growth rate of 60 per cent was accounted for by laser jet printers at 27,627 units, against the earlier 17,269 units.

UPS sales were placed at 1,26,735 units, showing a 22 per cent growth over 1,03,966 units. Ink Jet printers had a 39 per cent growth, with the sales placed 1,44,771 units, against 1,04,012 units in the corresponding previous quarter, the MAIT results said.

The growth in PC sales can be largely attributed to increased IT consumption by industry verticals and corporate sectors such as telecom, banking and financial services, manufacturing and IT-enabled services.

Higher consumption was also witnessed in SMEs, IT training institutes and computer centric small enterprises like jobbers doing data entry/DTP. In addition, the trend of increased PC purchase in smaller towns and cities, witnessed last year, continued steadfast. Aggressive pricing by the PC vendors has also helped improve the PC penetration.

Bangalore, September 24
Microsoft Corp on Wednesday announced the closure of MSN chat services in India and several other countries, saying that the move was aimed at protecting children from “inappropriate” communication online.

The MSN instant messenger, however, “will continue as an integral part of MSN’s growth strategy,” said a Microsoft press statement issued here.

MSN messenger offers many of the same benefits of the chat service while providing consumers with a greater control over those they communicate with.

Under the new strategy, the MSN chat service will close in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America, said the statement, adding that “un-moderated” service would only be available to subscribers in the USA, Canada and Japan.

An MSN India official said the shutdown would come into effect over a couple of weeks in a phased manner. “We have made these changes because online chat services were being misused,” said Judy Gibbons, corporate vice-president of MSN International.

“These changes will improve protection for MSN users when it comes to spam and inappropriate communication,” he added.

The statement said that communication about the changes in Internet chat rooms would be posted on several locations on MSN chat.
— IANS

New Delhi, September 24
National Textiles Corporation (NTC) bonds issue to mop up around Rs 500 crore will hit the market next week.

The proceeds from the issue will be used for offering voluntary retirement benefits to its about 14,000 workers, official sources told PTI, adding that the meeting of arrangers for the issue will be held this week to decide on the final date.

Uptil now, 43 out of a total 66 sick mills have been closed down in phases over the past year following the Rs 2,993 crore package approved by Cabinet and Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction.
— PTI

Jalalabad, September 24
Rice millers of the state resent the non-acceptance of parboiled rice in the Central pool. The FCI Regional Office, Punjab, has directed the District Managers to ask the millers to deliver raw rice instead of parboiled rice.

Mr Bal Krishan Bali senior vice-president of the Punjab Rice Millers Association, has criticised the FCI for discouraging the acceptance of parboiled rice. He said the FCI should consider that Rs 1,000 crore had been invested for setting up parboiled rice industry in the state. He added that the industry had been set up on the persuasion of the Union Government.

ROUND-UP

Reliance offers
ISD cards

New Delhi, September 24
Reliance Infocomm today launched in Punjab and Gujarat an ISD card that would enable the customers from India to call the USA and Canada for Rs 7 per minute.

The card excludes Hawaii and Alaska and can be used by registering the card from a Reliance India Mobile phone.

Initially being offered in the two states, the cards can be bought from any Webworld outlet in Punjab and Gujarat and are available in four denominations from a minimum talk value of Rs 500 for 50 minutes to a maximum of Rs 2800 for 400 minutes.
— UNI

Ranbaxy drugs’ trials in UK, USA

NEW DELHI:
India’s largest exporter of drugs, Ranbaxy Laboratories, today said it would take some more products under development for trials to the USA, Britain and Canada.

Ranbaxy, which recently tied up with Schwarz Pharma AG for the development of its new drug RBx 2258 for the treatment of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasic (BPH), said it was considering taking some drugs under development for trials in the USA and the UK.

“We have five to six products under various phases of clinical trials and we will take some of them to the USA and UK,” Ranbaxy CEO and Managing Director D.S. Brar told newsmen here on the sidelines of a CII seminar on clinical research.
— UNI

McDonalds Japan to reduce staff

TOKYO:
McDonalds Japan, the nation’s largest fast food chain, is to offer voluntary redundancy to around 15 per cent of the staff at its headquarters as it seeks to reverse a profit and sales slump.

McDonald’s Holdings Co Ltd (Japan), 50.1 per cent owned by US hamburger giant McDonalds Corp, said on Wednesday that it would offer redundancy to around 130 of its 883 employees at its headquarters and main management division next month.

Staff working in stores are exempt from the scheme. The US hamburger chain’s biggest overseas unit has seen same-store sales fall for nearly two years, hurt by cases of mad cow disease and intense competition from local fast-food restaurants.
— Reuters

CWC inks pact on cold storage

NEW DELHI:
The Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) today entered into an agreement with Canada-based CMC Engineering and Management for the modernisation of cold storages.

The CWC, with a storage capacity of 30 million metric tonnes, would benefit immensely from the tie-up, Consumer Affairs Minister Sharad Yadav said on the occasion of the signing of the MoU.
— PTI

Mobile phones to function as TVs

TOKYO:
Consumer electronics maker Sony Corp said on Wednesday that it planned to ship in December samples of a mini digital broadcast tuner module that would enable mobile phones to act as televisions.

The tuner module, which is smaller than a postage stamp, can be used in mobile applications such as cell phones or personal digital assistants (PDAs). Sony, says the module is the smallest of its kind and has the lowest power consumption.
— Reuters

Tourism DayChandigarh, September 24
The Punjab Tourism Development Corporation will be celebrating the ‘World Tourism Day’ at its complexes all over the state on September 27. The celebrations would continue till September 29. Mr Ashok Kumar, chairman of the Corporation said the visitors to the state would be extended a warm welcome and that they would be entitled to a special 20 per cent discount on food and beverages and on room rent also.
— TNS

SamtelNew Delhi, September 24
Samtel, a display and TV picture tube company has chosen SAP solutions to streamline collaborations across its offices. Samtel has chosen ‘mySAP ERP’ to streamline business and manufacturing processes and has also decided to implement mySAP Business Intelligence to identify, integrate and analyse information that will enable informed decisions, a SAP release said here today.
— PTI

Infosys TechMumbai, September 24
Infosys Technologies will allot 4,645 equity shares of par value of Rs 5 to the employees under its Stock Option
Plan. The equity under stock option plan is being allotted to employees, pursuant to the exercise of the options granted to the employees under the Company’s 1999 Stock Option Plan.
— UNI

ElectroluxNew Delhi, September 24
Electrolux Kelvinator Ltd today said it would diversify its consumer electronics and home appliance business by introducing air conditioners and microwave ovens this fiscal.
— UNI

Export awardNew Delhi, September 24
Bharat Heavy Electricals has been selected for the All India Trophy for Top Exporters for 2000-01. The company has been selected for the award, instituted by Engineering Export Promotion Council, for the 13th consecutive year.
— PTI